seamless are great. i have 4 in my ears, and have had no problems. the only issue is getting it closed back to be perfectly lined up. (that's where segment win. you're not bending it out of shape, so the segment just fits right back in without any sharp edges.)

I'm going to buy a seamless or segment ring for my septum... but not sure which. I hated messing with the captive rings when I had a lip piercing. I don't want to buy special tools. What do ya'll use to close them back up?

I've mostly had good luck with my jewelry staying in, i've worn the same labret studs in my tragus piercings since I was able to change the jewelry, and they never get unscrewed. I put a segment ring in my conch after trying to wear 'prettier' things in it and i've never had a need to take it out, so I don't.

I've been on a nose-stud-losing spree though. Since I have one on each side, I need a matching pair (don't tell me I don't!), so if I lose one it's like I lost them both. I usually order a couple from BAF whenever there's a sale, but last time I went to Hot Topic they were having a buy one, get one sale on jewelry so I got a pack of nose studs that was three pairs. Lost one of every single set already!

I also got some 1/2 inch ear skins. I get to start taping my ears since my job is ending!

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

if you want fewer tools, segment are better, since you only need the openers. you'll also need the closers if you're going to be using seamless.

i had a tiny captive, and i got a pair of "small" plastic tipped opening pliers from BAF, and the pliers were just barely small enough and the teeeeeeny tiny ball flew off and disappeared when the ring slipped off the end. then i got a pair of flattish pliers (and more balls) and it's worked perfectly. (so what i'm saying is use the right tools for the job, mang!)

Oh so people use actual proper tools. I guess I can not be a dork about it and just get some pliers! I don't know why it just feels annoying to me to buy something just to use only a couple times a year.

another story. i opened my seamless ring (that i managed to destroy in the process) with those wrong sized opening pliers that i had gotten first, and instead of opening cleanly straight apart, they opened on the diagonal. the closers were only smooth on the concave surface, so when i tried to at least flatten them so i can close them using the pliers' smooth surface, they got chewed up from the non-smooth part. get thee some tools. they don't take up too much space. you'll be happy you did.

Wait, can I use the pliers that I use to open my captive ring to open my segment ring??? And do you need something special to close captives up? For the seamless, too?

I usually never have a problem with my jewelry falling out but then out of the blue I'll have a marathon of it and then it'll stop. I had only changed my eyebrow jewelry once and it stayed in for years, then all of a sudden the spikes started to unscrew and get lost and I kept replacing them until they one day finally stayed. It's been years since that happened. Same goes for all of my piercings.

_________________"...anarchists only want to burn cars and punch cops."- nickvicious"We'll be eating our own words 30 years from now when we're demanding our legislators outlaw aerosol-based cyber dildo-wielding death holograms."- Brian

same pliers. and as long as you don't use too much pressure (which would alter the curve of the ring) you shouldn't need closing pliers. just use as much pressure necessary to remove the segment/ball. (unless of course it's through thick skin. you might need to open the captive wider, and then in that case, yeah, you'll need closing pliers. the segment has a bit of a wider opening, naturally. so you probably won't need to widen the opening. which is good, since it kinda needs to line up perfectly, and if the path is altered, it'll be tough to realign it without leaving a gap somewhere.)

And there may or may not be a sale code all week if you have their calendar.

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

Does anyone know where I can get some nice spirals for my ears? I was looking at them on BodyArtForms but they're either acrylic which I'm okay with but are not preferred or I just don't really like them. I'd like to see more variety.

_________________"...anarchists only want to burn cars and punch cops."- nickvicious"We'll be eating our own words 30 years from now when we're demanding our legislators outlaw aerosol-based cyber dildo-wielding death holograms."- Brian

Does anyone know where I can get some nice spirals for my ears? I was looking at them on BodyArtForms but they're either acrylic which I'm okay with but are not preferred or I just don't really like them. I'd like to see more variety.

My favorite site for ear jewelry. I have several wood and stone pieces that have lasted for years already. Looks like there are only a couple wood pieces right now, lots of bone and horn, but the ones that they have are pretty.

ordered a 12g septum retainer from body art forms! this one over here is finally gonna stretch her septum up! or, for the short term because i take mod mod matters real slow, remedy the fact that my 14g retainer is always slipping out and being a nuisance.

I've thought about stretching my septum a little, just for funsies. I never wear my retainer flipped down anyway so having it at a size where I could put an earskin in it (which i've seen people do before) sounds like fun. Mine doesn't slip out all the time, but thanks to allergies the inside of my nose is often very lubricated, so when I wipe my nose just right, the retainer gets pushed into one nostril and sometimes it's hard to get back out without pushing it farther up.

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

yeah... i kinda want to put a little glass plug in it, if i get to the point where i can do that. mine might be pierced a bit too high for this, but maybe if the light catches it at the right angle there would be a subtle stained glass effect? gorilla glass has some that start at 8g but they are DF and i'm not sure how easy it would be to get that in? or else they make these retainers that are kinda a plug/pincher hybrid in terms of shape.

My septum is 2ga right now. I have a white earskin in it and love it. I used to have a glass plug but it's really painful if it ever gets hit and with the earskin I don't even feel it. Plus I don't have to worry about an o-ring falling off (which happened and led to one of the funniest experiences of my life). It's one of my favorite piercings because it's so subtle. I'm pretty tall so it's mostly children and shorter people who notice it from looking up at my face. I had originally wanted to stretch to 0ga (I had it punched at 6 and immediately stretched to 4 so I've only really stretched it once up to 2ga) but the stretch I did was so painful I decided to stop at 2. The earskin was hard to put in at first but now I've had it for years so it's not a problem. I don't know how much harder the smaller ones would be to work with.

Is there a thread for body mod talk that's not about the jewelry itself? I forget. Ah well I'll say it here.

I had my navel pierced when I was 16, I took the piercing out when I was 20. I haven't had anything in it not once since then, and I'm 27 now. I was just picking out my bellybutton lint like I often do at night, and I noticed the scar for the piercing looked darker and bigger than normal. I ended up squeezing out like a cm tube of stinky bellybutton lint. It came out like some weird barnacle penis that I had to pull on to get out, so freaky. And awesome.

Yesterday in the shower, I realized that my septum retainer was gone. Like I mentioned, it gets slidey especially with allergies so I figured it was in the bed. Nope! So I put in a different one, and then later that night I pulled my shoes out from under my desk and heard a scraping sound. My retainer was under my desk, which means I was totally awake whenever it rotated and came out my nose (and it's not very small so I can feel it when it slides to one nostril) and I never noticed. I probably sneezed it out.

Anyway, BAF's Halloween sale is coming up so Brian is excited because he's getting one of these:

And i'm thinking about getting a pyrex 12g retainer, they're actually pretty cheap and if I can get it in easily enough I can think about stretching it more in the future. They makes earskins in 10g so that's as far as I want to go.

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

i'm thinking 14 to 12 will be nothing, but anything after that will be an 'active' stretch, unless i wait like, 5 years for it to relax naturally again.

catalina, (whoops forgot to reply in my last post) i'm sad to hear glass plugs hurt, but now that i think about it, it makes sense. i think i'm high risk for getting hit in the face most days (sports and i've already broken my nose once) so maybe it's not practical for me. :(

I got my stuff already from the BAF Halloween sale, it's their best discount for the rest of this year. No clicker for Brian's septum because they were all out of 14g, but I did get my 12 pyrex retainer in light blue. It went in fine without any lube, it's a little tight and I can feel the stretch but I wouldn't say it hurts. More of a slightly annoying feeling. Mostly because I ate some spicy food, which made my nose water so now it's actually sliding around in there pretty easily which is making me feel it more.

I'll see how I feel around Christmas about ordering a 10g one. I always order something from BAf during the holiday sale so I can get the calendar full of discount codes.

_________________"The Tree is His Penis"

The tree is his penis // it's very exciting // when held up to his mouth // the lights are all lighting // his eyes start a-bulging // in unbridled glee // the tree is his penis // its beauty, effulgent -amandabear

I didn't know they had a Halloween sale! I could have sworn I was on their mailing list. I need new jewelry so badly that I would have jumped at it.

_________________"...anarchists only want to burn cars and punch cops."- nickvicious"We'll be eating our own words 30 years from now when we're demanding our legislators outlaw aerosol-based cyber dildo-wielding death holograms."- Brian